happy, delighted even, intelligent, understanding, and welcoming; but underneath all that, they were somewhat sad, almost yearning. Before his eyes could inquire deeper into hers, she giggled, which brought him out of his daze. Alec stepped back and looked at her with confusion. She giggled again. "It's our third dance and almost every girl here is throwing daggers at me with her eyes."
He furrowed his brows as he turned to look. Sure enough, a group of the nobles' young daughters had caught him looking their way and hurriedly turned their eyes to the floor and the ceiling. They had clearly been glaring at Kaitlin.
Alec had not realized how long he had been gazing at her while they danced. When the song ended, he bowed to Kaitlin. "I'm afraid I must decline on the next dance, Princess." He kissed her hand, and as he made his way towards his sister, he whispered in Kaitlin's ear, "One more dance would have started more than just rumors; we'd have a brawl-you versus the rest of the over-enthusiastic young ladies in this hall." She giggled again, and then smiled as a much younger noble's son asked her to dance.
Alec shook his head and walked towards his sister, his curls bouncing. Ava was attempting to escape a young noble trying to ask her for a second dance. Alec smoothly intervened with an "I'm sorry," correctly interpreting the look of the young man he thought might be Cyran, one of Kaitlin's younger brothers. "But I must borrow my sister for a few dances." He whisked his sister away before the young man could protest.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Alec rolled his eyes. "Is it so bad just to dance with them?"
Ava glared at him. "All they want to talk about is themselves and the great things they have accomplished," Ava said with irritation. "Half of the remarkable deeds I am positive never happened at all. Most were remarkably outlandish and the remaining stories were highly questionable." Ava sighed as they crossed the dance floor. "Then there are those who find that all they want to talk about is me, which is far worse since they know nothing about me but think they do!"
Alec laughed at Ava's disgust as she continued her tirade, saying, "The worst was the one you chased away. I thought it was going to be all right to chat with him until he recited a poem he wrote for me."
Alec stopped dancing and had to laugh,
"Stop it! The poem was terrible, worse than the one you found." She paused. "All he talked about was his older brother anyway, who he seems to admire quite a bit."
"Sounds interesting," Alec, stated with a wink.
"At least the stories he told about his brother were believable,"
Ava responded. "I am most intrigued about him. But he is the only young gentleman in this room who hasn't tried to ask me to dance yet."
Alec chuckled silently at his sister's subdued but passionate outburst. "Where is this disgrace of a man who has not even asked you to dance yet?"
Ava rolled her eyes and pointed him out. "His young brother gestured to him so many times, he couldn't possibly have missed that we were talking about him. I think his face is burnt into my memory."
Alec examined the face of the young man for which Ava had inclined her head. "Hmm, I thought I knew every noble gentleman in court, but I do not recognize him."
The young man was maybe fourteen of average height. He looked lean but strong. He shifted in his seat and in the twist of cloth; Alec saw a glimpse of muscular arms. His chin was strong and sharp, his face angled. His hair was brownish-blonde and curled around his ears. It flipped up at the edges where it cut off at his forehead.
"He is quite handsome, Ava. Maybe you should ask him to dance," Alec quipped as he caught sight of the young man's brooding amber eyes. "He looks so … bored."
I suppose this young man is sweet on the eyes to the young women in the hall, Alec thought, but he knew his sister rarely saw the world quite the same as any normal girl. Not only did she know how to use weapons, but she also dabbled in musical performance, not to mention the use of scholarly magic, something very few people could achieve. It put quite a twist on her character, making it difficult for her to relate to the other young women of Articia. No, she would have no interest in most of the boys here this evening. Somehow, this young noble was different. There was something about him.
"He seems all right to me, Ava. Not self-absorbed at least, Handsome, if you like pretty boys." The last part was just more of Alec's teasing, and she knew it, but did not rise to the bait. Instead, she made a curious noise and turned to the door.
"What is it, Ava?" Alec asked, concerned.
Looking up at him, she responded, "A messenger is about to come through that door, but I'm not sure what he's going to say."
She occasionally had these visions; he remembered overhearing a conversation between Brendan, the royal mage and Ava's tutor, and his father about his sister's ability to foresee things. They said that it was common for powerful practitioners of the magical arts. The fact that she could do it still made him uneasy.
They danced right into the next ballad as he waited in uneasy suspense. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the door flew open and outside in the courtyard a messenger dismounted his horse and ran through the door. After bowing to the king and delivering a roll of parchment, the messenger left as quickly as he had arrived. King Henry read the message quietly and then looked around the room.
The king seemed troubled as he addressed the guests. "I'm afraid I must postpone the rest of this lovely evening to deal with a matter that has come to my attention and that I must not ignore, so I must bid you all goodnight." The queen took the king by the arm as he turned for the door. "I hope you enjoyed the celebration and especially the collard greens."
Alec immediately looked up to his father. "Collard greens" was the prearranged code word for possible danger. Alec had always thought it was strange that before each public event, they would discuss a set of codes for different situations. Alec and his siblings were always amused that the word chosen was something that the royal children truly disliked, like collard greens or religious studies. He had not believed that they would ever use the code words.
Ava gave him a worried look and noticed that Dominic and Tristan were already moving toward the large tapestry along the back wall of the hall as the king and the queen left the chamber by the main doors. Alec and Ava did not wait for additional confirmation and walked casually towards the tapestry. Behind, it hid a door to the back corridor. When they entered, Dominic and Tristan were waiting with swords drawn. Dom looked to Alec and Ava and said, "We are not alone; I saw movement down the hall." His eldest brother was pointing to a bend in the passage that led to the family quarters.
Ava sighed, and without breaking stride, she reached under the folds of her dress and drew a hidden dagger. It had always been the tradition of the royal family to carry their weapons to any formal occasion. Henry's children had never heard of a need to use them before tonight. The four siblings continued down the hall cautiously with Dominic leading and Tristan providing a rear guard. It was not long before shadows started to close in on them.
"Dark magic," Dominic shouted, "Ava . . . !"
Before he could complete his sentence, a wave of power emitted from Ava's palm as her gray eyes progressed quickly to a light brown. This happened every time Ava was gathering her power. Alec braced himself for the explosion of magic that those light brown eyes indicated. Like the wave of a powerful hand, the force of Ava's magic felled the foreign men in the hallway and the sounds of their grunts and metal banging into walls filled the air. Alec drew his sword, Shadow Fang, and moved up beside Ava to wait for what was coming down the hall.
"Alec, cover the rear!" Tristan shouted as he moved past Alec to stand next to Dominic. With Shadow Fang in his raised arm, Alec stepped behind Ava and scanned the darkness behind his position.
"Ava, a little light please," Dominic requested. Ava made a motion with her hand and flames of light flew out in front of them; she turned and repeated it behind.
"How did they get behind us?" Ava shouted as she saw the threat past Alec. He watched as two armed men approached them cautiously from behind. Tristan smiled at his brother Dominic as the stunned